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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Getting ready to head down to Vegas! Pulled out the suitcases this morning & Sadie had to jump in.

Oil has been changed in the van.Maddy has been groomed.Snacks & beverages have been purchased.Borrowing a portable DVD player (Wiggles all the way down, woohoo!).Laundry is being washed.Hope to be packed up by tonight & we'll head out tomorrow afternoon.

Excited to see family & friends. Excited to meet the newest Abbott. Excited to see Ryan before he leaves for 2 years. Excited to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary this Saturday. Excited to have photo sessions with Shannon & Haley and Gary.

Not too excited about the heat & how much I'm gonna sweat & how I'll look kinda like a wet dog the entire time.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

I complain a lot about my waistline....but I'm the one that is constantly feeding it! I've decided to drastically cut the amount of sugar that I'm eating. I didn't buy any "treats" at the store last week & you know what...I've survived just fine without them. I'm not eliminating sugar completely from my diet. Cause that's just wrong. I need a little something here & there. So we'll see how it goes. Hoping to feel healthier & look better!

By the way...one of my new favorite snacks.....a little mix of cashews & craisins. Pretty good.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

It's been a while....but Sadie has gone pee-pee on the potty...a few times. She kinda lost interest in it & started asking to go potty only when she wanted to either get past the hallway gate into the back rooms, or take her clothes off. She'd get up on the potty, but sit there for like 2 seconds & then stand up on the toilet trying to reach at stuff on the counter. I'd had enough of it.

I think that she really is ready for it & could handle it. She does have an interest in it & I'm thinking...if we're gonna do this, let's do it all the way. SO...we bought her a NEW potty. This one is a little padded seat with Elmo & Big Bird on it. She thinks it's pretty cool. We also got some candy as a treat. Peanut Butter M&M's.

Well, she definitely sits on the potty much better & for longer. This is good. Nothing happening & gosh I wish it would, but it's good. She saw me putting the candy away & flipped out! Yelling "nany!!!" She wanted some so bad! We kept explaining to her that she could have some candy when she goes on the potty. A lot of throwing her body down on the floor & crying happening there.

When it happens. When she really goes & gets the candy as a reward. I think we'll be golden. Not saying that it's going to happen that quickly.....just think we'll be on the right track & we won't look back.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

First off, here are the tag albums that I made for my mom & Dylan's mom. I fell in love with these. I do plan on making myself one with all my favorite pictures. I never carry around photos of Sadie, so this will be fun to throw in my purse. Eventually it will end up on a shelf or in a box & will be fun to come across again years down the road. So that is now on my list of things to do for myself. And I think that both my mom & Stacey really liked them.Sadie woke up this morning at 6:00. Dylan got up with her & let me sleep in. When I got up a couple hours later, he made breakfast. Pancakes...with my yummy nummy strawberry jam & whipped cream. How fancy & special is that! It was delicious. Dylan did an excellent job with the pancakes...very light & fluffy. Since he doesn't like strawberries, he had blueberry syrup & whipped cream instead. Everybody was pretty happy after that breakfast.

Then it was gift time. Dyl got me this book. Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks. It's awesome. Some really cool techniques that I'm excited to try out sometime on my scrapbook pages. He also got me the premiere issue of Blueprint magazine. Pretty cool & fun to have. We had a great day together. Good to talk to our Mom's & Grandma on the phone & spend some time together as a family.

Later on I caught Sadie playing with her new big orange ball & a headband over her eyes as glasses. So crazy! This is totally her. She finds the silliest way to play with things. Please ignore the complete mess of a house behind her. I really have no excuse for it though.

We went ahead with the cleaning & organizing and got so much done! We threw away a lot of stuff, took a lot of stuff to D.I. & packed up a lot of stuff for the storage unit. After all our labors we stopped in at Great Harvest for some sandwiches & sat outside to eat them. We also bought some granola...yum, yum. Excited to try that out with some yogurt. I also made more strawberry jam w/ that big 'ol container of strawberries. Seriously.....one of the most delicious tasting things.....fresh strawberry jam. Can't really control myself when it's around.And here are a few shots of Dylan & Sadie playing Doctor Mario together a little later in the day. Making me smile.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

So, I've been a bad blogger this week. Just not feeling the groove. But a lot happened this week that I want to remember.

The weather has been great. I am loving my mom shorts. Always said that I'd never wear those shorts that go all the way to your knees....but here I am loving them. Makes a big difference in how comfortable I feel temperature wise. And I think that they are actually pretty stylish. It's good.

I was a bit depressed on Tuesday. Feeling the weight of it all, I guess. Sadie has been quite attached to me for some reason. I guess I'm her little security & she can't stand for me to leave the room for two minutes even if Dylan is with her. You can't even imagine how many times I've heard "mommy" (that's what she calls me now. What a big girl, moving on up from mama....oh and you should hear her say "dad". Just so cute! Anyway.....) in a crying, whining voice. Has to have been a million, or something like that. Ha ha....I'm not being dramatic at all! Anyway.....that feeling down made me think of all the other things that are bothering me....my weight....my insane addiction to sugar....& a few more I can't think of right now. Anyway, Dylan was a saint! He took Sadie to go get the car washed & I got to take a minute to breath & then take a shower without her crying at the gate. I know that I have control over these feelings. I felt silly & dumb even feeling that way...still I couldn't get over it. Wednesday was a much better day....totally different. I went & worked out at 6am (haven't been doing that), showered, hit the grocery store & did a few chores all before 10am. Awesome!

Some other fun stuff this week: Dylan & I played Skip-Bo the other night. I made muddy buddies, so we snacked & played & it was SO FUN! I won two of the games & he won one.

We bought some more totes & I packed up all of Sadie's clothes that she's grown out of. That feels so good.

Sadie woke up from her nap yesterday & saw the video camera charging....she said "hamba". That's the first time I've heard her say camera. Next she said "mama". Yep....she can associate 'camera' w/ 'momma'. Funny. She's also starting to make the "L" sound. Cute to hear her say things like "love you".

It's Saturday & Dylan has the day off of work. A day where both of us have no responsibilities outside the home. This is so foreign to us. And so cool! We were talking about what we should do with this day. Couldn't really come up with anything "fun". I asked Dylan if he wanted to just clean & organize. My husband....the only one who would get so excited about that! He's funny. So that is what we're doing today. Cleaning & organizing. Need to hit the grocery store & make sure that we're stocked up for Sunday. I'm excited....should be a good day.

I ordered a yoga video & it came yesterday. I made sure to get all my chores done while Sadie was napping, so I'd be able to try it out once she went to bed. I enjoyed it a lot. It felt so good to slow down & I still got a bit of a sweat out of it. Just feels like it balances out the cardio I do at the gym (sometimes I try to go as fast as I can w/ my cardio....ha ha). Anyway, I can't describe how I felt after it. So relaxed, but strong at the same time. Felt like going to sleep actually, but instead I did this:I did take the layout from the Jamie Waters article in last months Creating Keepsakes Magazine. She is one of my favorite scrapbook designers. It's crazy how it still feels completely my own...with my freehand painted title on brown paper bag. I felt so good last night. A yoga workout & a scrapbook page completed! Woke up feeling really good this morning.

Monday, May 08, 2006

My mom sent Sadie a Cabbage Patch doll. Her name is Ciara Olivia. Sadie calls her Baby. She's so cute & totally makes me have fun memories of the days when I had a Cabbage Patch doll. Has the same exact smell too.

When we opened the package & Sadie got a little peek into the box, we asked her "What is it?!?!" She said "Baby!!!!" in such an excited voice. It was so cute to watch her with that doll. She immediately hugged it, & then found it's belly button. She held it's hand & walked it around the apartment. When it was time for Dad to leave for work she helped Baby wave goodbye. Baby went with us to Wal-Mart & sat right next to Sadie in the cart. Sadie fed her pretzels & gave her drinks from her sippy cup. When it was time to say the prayer, she helped Baby fold her arms & she's taken Baby to bed with her every night since she arrived. Oh yeah, she's undressed baby already too. Funny.Anyway, thanks Mom. She LOVES it!

Driving home from Salt Lake last week, I got the urge to take some pictures in the car. I know what it was.....it was the light through the window hitting Sadie that made me want to snap a few. Light is crazy. Always makes me want to see how it will come out in a photo. Anyway, here they are. I think they're cool. The one of me was taken in the mirror behind the sun visor.

There are days....and this happens quite often....when I look at my little Sadie & she just looks so big....older....more grown up than the day before. Yesterday when I was snapping pictures of her, I took this one of her little hand...holding a fruit snack. I love the way she says "fruit snack" by the way. Anyway, I couldn't help but think about how I am going to feel when her hands don't look like this anymore. When instead of holding fruit snacks & sippy cups they're holding car keys & a cell phone. Will I be sad? Probably, because everything makes me sad. BUT I want to enjoy her & be happy with her through every stage of her life. I'm sure that she'll still be just as funny & fun to be with as she is now.

I was talking to Chanel the other day about some of the hard parts of parenting & being a mom. How being with your kids every hour of the day is wonderful overall....but not every single hour is the most pleasant, or easy to handle. How our patience is tried every day...and how we get down on ourselves for sometimes reacting to the stress in not the best way. It's always nice to know that others are dealing with the same things I am. But thinking about all of this reminded me that I need to let go sometimes & just be a kid right along with Sadie. Enjoy having a bit of a childhood again with her. And to choose my battles....so she will grow up to be a likeable, respectful & good person. I will not be sad when these hands of hers change. It will be a slow & gradual change. I will see parts of her that are beautiful at every age & I'll love her more & more each day. Still....I will try to make the most of right now. And when I am trying to do something...and she is at my legs crying for me to hold her, I will try more to remember what is important....getting dinner done exactly at 5:00pm or taking a few moments to hold her.

One thing I love most about road trips is the amount of talking that Dylan & I get to do. I've always loved car rides with him because of the company. On the way home from Salt Lake we talked about our upcoming anniversary. I then realized that my one year anniversary with my camera is coming up in July. Ha ha. I am crazy! But I am in love with this camera. I love the process. I love learning & experimenting. I love what I get from it, by way of great photos & a feeling of accomplishment.

Yesterday we were waiting for Dylan to come home from work. Inspired by my little girl in a white t-shirt & jeans, I started playing with my camera. Before I knew it almost an hour had gone by. First I took this photo:Then when she wanted me to stop taking photos of her so she could sit on my lap & read a book with me...I turned on the timer, propped up the camera & took this:And later....I took this:Love my camera. So much fun. Makes me happy.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Dylan & I talk about how we always drive through Salt Lake on our way to & from Las Vegas, but we never stop & do anything there. We've been talking for awhile about how we've wanted to go to the Hogle Zoo this summer. We decided on Monday night that we'd go down on Tuesday & just spend the day in Salt Lake...at the zoo & then do some shopping. Thought it would be better to do it now, before it got too hot this summer.

We had a lot of fun. We all needed something like this. A little break. A little mini vacation. This past semester has just been so hard on all of us.

We left Tuesday morning around 9am. As this was a last minute trip we didn't have any good snacks for the drive. We stopped for gas in Idaho Falls & Dylan came back to the car with donuts & corn nuts. We stopped again in some little town that smelled like manure & this time Dylan came out with Choco Tacos. Ha ha. Those things are so funny. Anyway, just felt like mentioning our nasty, but yummy car food.We got to the zoo around noon. We found the elephants pretty early on, or "fanant" as Sadie says. They were our favorites. We kept telling Sadie to say "bye bye" to the elephants so we could move on....she kept saying "no". We came back by the elephants later in the day & they were eating. Dylan & Sadie were in a different spot than me. They had a perfect view of one of the elephants urinating. It was incredible the amount of pee that came out of that thing. Dylan described it as "disgusting but amazing at the same time".

We ran into Ben, Laurel & Becca there too. What are the odds? Spent most of our time at the zoo with them. After the zoo we headed over to the Gateway Mall. Checked out Anthropologie, the Apple store & The Gap. We bought some stuff at the Gap. I got some cute pants & capris (these & these...much needed). Dylan got some fun stuff too....shoes, jeans & a polo.

Didn't buy anything for Sadie. But I had gotten her these cute little sandals from Old Navy & some bermuda shorts from Target the day before....which I am totally in love with. She looks so cute in them.

We had a fun time. Gald we went. A little tired the next day, but it was worth it.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

We had a nice visit this last weekend with Dylan's parents. Sadie was happy to have so much attention all weekend. The wedding was nice. McKenzie looked so pretty. I loved her dress, hair...everything. She looked gorgeous. We didn't do anything too super exciting. Did the wedding stuff on Friday. Stopped by the falls to see the ducks. Went to Wingers for lunch on Saturday & then the park for dinner. (well I was at work during the park part....my last night! Woohoo!)

I believe in being positive. I believe in love & family. I believe in handmade. I believe in doing good to others. I believe that we are all connected. I believe that every little bit adds up to make a big difference. My name is Candace. I'm married to the love of my life & am the mother to two super cool girls & one sweet baby boy. I love sewing, cooking, thrifting & photography.